Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us
for today's program. At connect with Skip Heitzig, We're all
about connecting you to the timeless truth of God's Word
through verse by verse teaching. That's why we make messages
like this one today available to you and others. Before
we get started with the program, we encourage you to
check out connect with Skip dot com, where you'll find

(00:22):
resources like full message series, weekly devotionals, and more. And
while you're at it, be sure to sign up for
Skipp's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from God's Word
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connect Withiskip dot com. That's connect with Skip dot com.
Now let's get started with today's message from pastor Skip Heightzig.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Let me take you back to when I was in
grade school and I forgot an assignment. It was due,
and the teacher made it clear that this assignment, this
paper will be turned in tomorrow and a large portion
of your grade will I'll be determined by that project.
So I came to school and class started and I

(01:06):
realized I had forgotten my paper, my assignment. So I
decided to get it. I decided to leave the classroom
without telling my teacher, and I'd walk home about six miles. See,
I wasn't thinking straight. I just panicked. I was gripped

(01:29):
with fear, and I thought I got to go get it,
so I start walking. I did not call my parents.
They didn't know, the school didn't know. But my parents
got a call from the school saying, your child is
missing and we don't know where he is. We think
maybe he has to get his paper. So my dad
went out looking for me and he found me. So
just picture a little Skippy out there walking around in

(01:51):
the field trying to go home get his paper and
my dad finding me. And when he found me, he
had the paper in hand, and he drove me back
to school and I turned it in. That's a little skippy. Now,
let me tell you about little Chippy. Chippy the parakeet.
Chippy the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he's

(02:13):
peacefully perched in his cage. The next he is sucked in,
washed up, and blown over. The problem began when Chippy's
owner decided to clean Chippy's cage with a vacuum cleaner.
She removed the attachment from the end of the hose
stuck it in the cage. The phone rang and she

(02:33):
turned to pick it up. She had barely said hello
when Chippy got sucked in. The bird owner gasped, put
down the phone, turned off the vacuum, opened the bag.
There was Chippy, still alive, but stunned. Since the bird

(02:55):
was covered with dust and soot. She grabbed him and
raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet and held
Chippy under running water. Then, realizing that Chippy was soaked
and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do.
She reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet

(03:17):
with hot air. Poor Chippy never knew what hit him.
A few days after the trauma, the reporter who initially
had written about the event contacted Chippy's owner to see
how the bird was recovering well. She replied, Chippy doesn't

(03:38):
sing much anymore. He just sits around and stares. Okay,
that's okay for Chippy, that's okay for Skippy. That is
not okay for adult mature followers of Jesus Christ, suffering
as an adult should be markedly different from suffering as

(04:03):
a child, because when we become mature, we become equipped
to handle hardship, pain and trial a baby. When a
baby doesn't get his way, to tell me, how does
a baby communicate? Cries? Right? Wow, good imitation there. So

(04:25):
if the baby is feeling pain, or the baby is
hungry or disappointed, or has unfulfilled desires, or is tired
or doesn't get his or her way, same mode of communication.
It's a cry. The mother has to figure out what
that cry means. As the child grows a little bit,

(04:49):
he or she handles trials, pain difficulty much differently. As
a toddler, Instead of crying, they might just pout or
act impulsively or blame others. Then the child grows and
becomes a teenager. By now the individual has learned the

(05:12):
fine art of manipulation, perhaps, or becomes argumentative or acts recklessly,
or just feels isolated and overwhelmed. But the older we get,
the more mature we should be. We not always are,

(05:34):
but we should be. We should suffer differently. Children don't
have the same emotional capacity that adults have. The mode
of expression varies. As a mature individual, we handle difficulties
much better than when we were younger. As a Christian,

(05:57):
you and I should be handling difficulties much much better.
The main theme of the Book of James is grow
up Christian maturity, marks of a mature believer. The sub
theme might be genuine faith will produce genuine proof. If

(06:19):
you have legitimate, real authentic faith in Jesus Christ, there
should be real, genuine proof. The first line of proof
is how that Christian man or woman faces hardship. We're

(06:40):
going to look at verses two through verse eight. The
title of this message is called adulting when times are hard,
and it's all about trials. So I'm gonna give you
four realities about trials. First, trials are normal. They're not unusual,
They're normal. Verse two, My brethren, count it all joy.

(07:05):
We'll get to that part when Notice the word when
not if not, like this is a real possibility, but
it's going to happen. When it happens, count it all joy.
When you fall into various trials, Suffering is a fact
of life, of every life, including your life. This is

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why Peter said, my beloved brethren, don't think it a
strange thing when you encounter fiery trials, as though some
strange thing happened to you. It's not strange. It's normal.
Job in chapter five, we're told man is born to

(07:50):
trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward. Light a fire,
and you can expect the same thing to happen every time.
Little incandescent pieces going to be flying off the top
of that fire, and you got to watch that they
don't catch others on fire. Man is born to trouble
as sure as the sparks fly upward. Now, if you're

(08:12):
a Christian and you're listening to what I just said,
you might have a rebuttal and say, now, wait a minute,
not us, not Christians in the same way that unbelievers
have them. Certainly not us. We're children of God. Somebody
told me sometimes that if I have enough faith and
I really believe that I don't have to suffer, I

(08:36):
don't have to go through the same kind of hardships.
I can have glorious prosperity. That's fake news. Jesus said
that God causes the rain and the sun to fall
on the just and on the ungodly alike. Jesus said
to his disciples in the world, you shall have tribulation,

(09:03):
same thing not might not maybe you shall have tribulation.
Now go back to verse two Not only should you
notice the word when you fall into various trials, but
look at the first two words. What are they my brethren?
Who's he talking to Christians? His brothers and sisters in Christ,

(09:25):
Jewish believers of the diaspora. But they are believing in Jesus.
So my brethren counted all joy when you fall into
various trials? Why why is it that there's no immunity
if you're a believer. Why is it that as believers
sometimes God allows us to go through some of the

(09:47):
most severe kind of trials. Here's why. If you're going
to pick up on anything in this sermon, pick up
on this. The reason Christians go through trials is to
show the superiority of a li life lived in God.
We are on display. It's as if we say you
want to know how to suffer, I'll show you. I

(10:09):
will be on display. I will show the superiority of
a life lived in God. This is the reason Christians
get cancer. This is why Christians face bankruptcy. This is
why Christians deal with depression. This is why Christians have
their hearts broken. People of God handle things differently than

(10:31):
people who are not the people of God. We should
be better at it, and this text will show us why.
Charles Hadden Spurgeon put it this way. I believe the
hardest hearted, most unlovely Christians in all the world are
those who have never had much trouble, and those who

(10:52):
are the most sympathizing, loving and christ like are those
that have had the most afflictions. The worst thing that
can happen to any of us is to have our
path made to smooth. Well, God's got you covered. He's
going to make sure your path is not too smooth.

(11:14):
He loves you that much to make sure that you
don't skate by real easily. By the way, notice how
it is written, my brother encounter all joy. When you
fall into various trials, you don't even have to go
looking for him. You'll just be walking along. Bam, You'll

(11:36):
fall into it. And that's part of the pain. He said.
I didn't see that coming. I didn't anticipate it exactly.
You fall into them.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
You're listening to connect with skip Heitzig. Before we return
to the message, consider this. Abraham's life was full of
ups and downs, but God was in every moment. In
God print the Life of Abraham pastor skip unpacks seven
engaging messages from the Book of Genesis to show how
God shapes the hearts of those who trust Him through

(12:08):
trials and triumphs. Abraham learned what real faith looks like,
and this powerful seven message series will encourage you that
you can too. This resource is our thanks for your
gift of fifty dollars or more to help reach more
people with God's Word through connect with skip Heidzig. So
request your CD package and digital download of Godprint when

(12:29):
you give at connectwiskip dot com slash offer or when
you call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight.
Now let's rejoin today's teaching.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Something else about these trials. What is the word that
modifies trial? What kind of trials are they? Various trial?
That's a very interesting word. Poiky Loss is the word
used in Greek, and poiki loss means many colored, many colored.
It's the same word used of If it was the

(13:00):
septuagen Greek translation of the Old Testament Joseph's Coat of
many colors, our word would be variegated many hues, as
many colors as are on the Pantone color chart, which
are one and fourteen to be exact. God has different
shades of trial for you and I. One day you

(13:24):
might be feeling blue. The next day you might have
a gray day. The next day you might be green
with envy, and the following day red hot with anger.
They are various trials. Some are big, some are small,
Some are short. We like those kinds. Some are prolonged

(13:49):
over months and years. Some are intense, some are mild.
They are various trials. There's physical trials, there's emotional trials,
spiritual trials. Physical trials include cancer, strokes, heart attacks, birth defects,
traffic accidents. In the Bible, Job had a physical trial.

(14:14):
He lost his health. He had a loathsome skin disease,
and he couldn't figure out why. And to add to
his misery, his friends just kept saying, it's because you
got sin in your life, sin in your life, sending
your life. None of that was true. Then there was Paul.
Paul had a thorn in the flesh, probably an eye disease.

(14:35):
Most think Simon was a leper that Jesus went to
go visit. All those are physical trials, but then we
have emotional trials. If you're familiar with the Book of Psalms,
how many Psalms are steeped in emotional trauma. Even David said,
I make my beds swim with tears. I wonder how

(14:57):
much I cry. Feel my pillow it's soaked with my tears.
Elijah was a dynamic prophet, but he got overwhelmed by
exhaustion and depression. It got so bad he lifted up
his voice and just said kill me, God, take my
life from me. He came to an end of himself.

(15:18):
He was so distraught he wanted to die. East Stanley Jones,
who was a missionary to India, told of a preacher
who prepared a ten sermon series called how to Avoid
a Nervous Breakdown. Before he could even finish the series,
he himself had a nervous breakdown. So there are physical trials,

(15:41):
there are emotional trials, and there are spiritual trials. We
agonize over sin, over guilt, over doubt, or spiritual expectations
that we thought God should do and he didn't do it.
John the Baptist suffered doubt like that he was locked

(16:01):
up in jail, persecuted, waiting for Jesus to do something. Finally,
send a note to our Lord saying are you the one?
Or should we be looking for someone else, like, come on,
you're in the Messiahs. Do something messianic. Step it up,

(16:22):
by the way, something else about trials. They don't lessen
with time. I wish that I could say they do,
But it's not like, well, when you're thirty five, you
have less trials than when you did when you were
twenty five, or when you're sixty. You know, it's just
it's easy. Then when you were fifty, it's not same amount,
same amount, but hopefully by then you have learned how

(16:46):
to deal with them better and differently. So trials are normal.
That's the first of the four realities about trials. Second,
this is the hard part. Trials can be Joe. There's
always silence when I say that, because I know what
that means. Like, okay, explain yourself. Trials can be joyful.

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Look what it says, my brethren, count it all. Joy
means pure joy, sheer joy when you fall into various trials. Now,
be honest, you have read this verse and you have
thought that is one of the most outrageous statements in

(17:33):
the New Testament? Am I right? I would vote it
as that if I didn't know exactly what it meant.
That sounds irrational. That sounds like that nineteen eighty eight
Bobby mcfarren's song You remember that, don't Worry, Be Happy.
That's a good song if like life is good. But

(17:54):
if you are going through a hardship and you hear
that song, it is the most irritating tune on earth.
So my brethren, count it all joy. You don't expect
to have that in the same sentence, Trial and joy
joyful trial. That sounds like an oxymoron. You know, like
airline food you have one word that cancels out the

(18:17):
other word. Or political science would be an oxymoron. Or
government intelligence or pretty ugly or Microsoft works. All those
are oxymorons. Joyful trials, Are you kidding? My joy comes

(18:40):
when the trial's over. My joy is directly proportional to
the absence of a hardship, not the presence of one.
That's how we think. So let me explain what it
means when it says, my brethren, count it all joy,
pure joy, sheer joy when you fall into various trials.
First of all, well, there's a huge difference between joy

(19:03):
and happiness. Joy is not happiness. Happiness is not joy.
James is not saying, don't worry, be happy. He's not
doing that. Happiness is a passing emotion in California where
I come from. If it's a sunny day and the
waves are good, all the surfers are out there going dude, dude,

(19:26):
the waves are so epic or so awesome, and I'm
so happy, dude. But when they're not good, it's like,
I'm so not happy. Because happy depends on the happenings,
the circumstances. The circumstances are good happy, circumstances are a

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bo unhappy. That is not joy. Joy. Let me explain
what joy is. Joy is a supernatural delight. Doesn't come
from you. It's a supernatural delight in the person, in
the purposes and in the people of God. That's joy,

(20:07):
And that doesn't depend on what's happening outside of you.
That's a decision you make inside of you. Joy is
a supernatural delight in the person, purposes and people of God.
That takes us to the word count. Look at that,
my brethren, count it all joy. That's a very important word.

(20:28):
He's not saying feel joyful, He's saying count it all joy.
What does that mean? Count means consider, calculate, or evaluate,
He's not telling you to feel something. He's telling you
to think something, evaluate something, calculate the benefits of suffering,

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and then embrace that suffering as a means to that end.
That's what it means to count something as joy. JB.
Phillips translation puts it this way. When all kinds of
trials and temptations crowd your lives, my brothers, don't resent
them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Don't resent

(21:16):
them as in true I can't believe this, Why is
this happening to me? Welcome them as friends. You can
only do that if you counted joy, if you are
forward thinking enough to say, what is the benefit of
this going to be? See, Christians are not massacres. We're pragmatives.
And what I mean by that is we are rejoicing

(21:38):
in the benefits that that suffering is going to bring,
you know, sort of like going to a dentist. When
my mom used to say you have a dental appointment.
I didn't go Awesome, love that drill and want a
needle right here? I hated it. Today, I'll go to

(21:59):
the dentist. I think a little bit differently about it.
I see the benefits of going like my teeth won't
fall out. That's good, So I'll go through the suffering
because I know what the benefit is going to be.
In the Book of Acts, when the Sanhedrin arrested Jesus
followers apostles and beat them and then commanded them not

(22:25):
to speak anymore in the name of Jesus, listen to
their reaction, so they departed from the presence of the council,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for
his name. They counted it joy because God counted them worthy.
Later on, Paul and Silas were put in jail, also

(22:46):
beaten and chained, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were
listening to them free concert, and God liked the concert
so much he brought the house down. Later on, Paul
gets put in jail again. This guy goes from prison

(23:08):
to prison, right every time he goes to a town,
it's like, where's the jail. I got to find out
where I'm spending the night. So he's in Rome in
jail for two years. He writes to the Philippian Church,
the Letter to the Philippians, in which though he is
a prisoner, he uses the word joy, rejoicing, rejoice sixteen times, joy, joy, Joy,

(23:34):
I rejoice, I'm happy, I'm joyful. You can only do
that if you're nuts or you're doing this, you're counting it,
evaluating it, forward looking and making the decision. Now. Unbelievers
can't do this or unable to do this. And here's why.

(23:54):
For an unbeliever, this life is all there is. And
if this life, which is all there is, there's no
afterlife for them. If this life is marred by suffering,
in pain and hardship, they have lost it all. For
the believer, they can do this because no matter how

(24:16):
dark it gets, it's for a good reason. There's a benefit.
There's light at the end of the tunnel, and then
when life is over with a reward in heaven. So
when we do this, when we suffer like this, we
are showing the superiority of a life lived in God.

(24:38):
So spiritual maturity then can be measured by what it
takes to steal your joy.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
We're so glad you joined us for connect with skip Heitzig.
Before we go, we want to remind you to request
this month's featured resource God Print the Life of Abraham.
This seven message series from pastor Skip traces Abraham's walk
with God and invites you to discover how faith can
grow even through fear, doubt, and delight. It's our gift

(25:07):
to you when you support connect with skip Heitzig with
a donation of fifty dollars or more. Call eight hundred
nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's eight hundred nine
two two eighteen eighty eight or visit connectwiskift dot com
slash donate thanks for spending time with us today and
we'll see you next time. On connect with skip Heidzig.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Make Connects, make a Connects of the Crossing Chas Fan song,
Make Coness Next.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Connect with skip Heidzig is a presentation of connection communications
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